Slow Cooker Spinach, Carrot, and Mushroom Lasagna

Hello world!! My name is Mary. I first met Mita in an elevator during her first year of medical school. She kindly said to me, “Hey, you’re a PhD student in Anatomy, right?” … “Want to study together?” Long story short, we spent about 15 minutes studying and 4 hours talking about life. We’ve been great friends ever since and our meetings almost always involve yummy food!

Final product

All the ingredients!!

Garlic smoosher because it’s satisfying and yummy!

Beautifully tender mushrooms!!

Remove all that extra moisture so you don’t have soggy lasagna

I love cooking and love it even more if I can pop everything into my Rice Cooker/Slow Cooker/Steamer extraordinaire and come back to a perfectly made meal! Time is limited these days so my boyfriend, Ishan, and I are happy to make one really good meal that we can heat up for a few days. This Slow Cooker Lasagna gives you 8 lovely filling pieces of cheesy goodness, which is also full of veggies in every bite. Personally, I was happy to eat it for 4 days straight!

Slicing on the diagonal gives you more surface area and then a bigger bite of carrot. Plus it’s easier to layer!

You don’t have to thaw the spinach. I put it in the nut bag (you can use a towel or cheese cloth) and ran warm water over it.

Thawing and removing moisture! Again get all of the extra liquid out!! Work those forearm muscles!

Ricotta layer ingredients with the nicely squeezed out spinach lump.

Ricotta layer ready to go!

Layer 1: Sauce

Layer 2: Noodles (you don’t even have to boil them!) It doesn’t have to be pretty just cover the surface to get some structure to your lasagna.

Layers 3 & 4: Ricotta Mixture and Veggies

Layers 5 & 6: Sauce and Mozzarella

Repeat until you fill your slow cooker or run out of ingredients. Finish with the final layer of noodles, sauce, and mozzarella.

Start by preparing all of the layers:
1. Wash mushrooms (and slice if they are not already sliced).
2. In a sauté pan, heat olive oil, then add mushrooms and 1 clove of garlic. Season with salt and pepper and sauté until mushrooms are tender.
3. While mushrooms are cooking, wash and peel carrots and slice them diagonally. *
4. When mushrooms are done cooking, place them on a plate lined with paper towel to remove extra moisture.
5. Thaw spinach and squeeze out all of the liquid in a towel (best if it is a dark color), nut bag, or cheese cloth.
6. In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, garlic, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Now assemble!
7. Start with a layer of pasta sauce covering the bottom of your slow cooker (or rice cooker).
8. Break lasagna noodles into pieces that will fit into your slow cooker and layer them over the sauce.
9. Spoon a third of the ricotta mixture onto the lasagna noodles and spread it into an even layer. **
10. Top ricotta with a third of the sautéed mushrooms and carrots.
11. Spoon pasta sauce over the veggies and ricotta. Then evenly cover the sauce with shredded mozzarella cheese (about a fourth of your bag).
12. Repeat layers twice more: noodles (broken to fit), ricotta mixture, sautéed mushrooms and carrots, pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese.
13. Finally add one more layer of noodles, pasta sauce, and mozzarella for a nice gooey top.

Cooking and Preparing to Eat:
14. Cook on high for 3 hours (or low for 7 hours) in the slow cooker (or rice cooker).
15. Allow lasagna to cool and set by leaving it at room temperature for 1 hour or placing it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat!
16. Slice into 8 pieces and top with basil and parmesan if you’re so inclined!

* Sliced carrots can be added to the cooking mushrooms, but I prefer to let them cook in the slow cooker to add a bit of texture to the lasagna.
** My rice cooker is tall and not wide so I went for more layers. If you have a large slow cooker, you may only do 2-3 layers so you can put more ricotta in each.